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The Wolverine Casts Key Roles

With The Wolverine, Fox’s long-delayed follow-up to 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, finally set to begin filming next month, Superhero Hype reports director James Mangold has cast four Japanese actors in key roles.

Based in part on the 1982 Wolverine miniseries by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, the film has Logan (played again by Hugh Jackman) battling ninjas, Silver Samurai and the politics of the Tokyo criminal underworld for the heart of his ex-lover, the daughter of a Japanese crime lord.

According to the website, Hiroyuki Sanada (Lost, The Last Samurai) will play Shingen Yashida, the Yakuza crime boss and father of Wolverine’s fiancee Mariko Yashida and the mutant Keniuchio Harada, who became Silver Samurai. Veteran actor Hal Yamanouchi (The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, Push) is pegged for the role of Yashida, although it’s unclear how that differs from Shingen.

For the parts of Mariko and Wolverine’s ally Yukio, a thief and ninja, the studio turned to two actors relatively unknown outside of Japan and the world of fashion: models Tao Okamoto and Rila Fukushima.

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Comments

http://twitter.com/WarCraftIV HED

Cool that he’s casting Japanese actors.

theriothrope

Exactly what other options were there for Shingen & Mariko Yashida? (Ask M. Knight Shamaayan! Thank you, I’m here all week.) Seriously though, I have no idea what the hell you’ve said in that third paragraph. And I have no hope for this movie. Fox has proven repeatedly that they are aggressively trying to end the popularity of the superhero genre. Barring a minor miracle, we’re not getting the Wolverine movie we’ve all been waiting for. We’ll get “X-Men Origins 3: Wolverine II: The Sniktening.” At least we still get Jackman. Tall or not, the man does own the part.

0bsessions

Wolverine was pretty effectively terrible in nearly every capacity, but I don’t think they’re actively trying to make bad films. Note that First Class was pretty well received critically.

http://twitter.com/AlexOnly Alex

Wow,an American film set in Japan cast with Japanese actors. Kinda worried how casting a model as Yukio will turn out though.